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I have been wanting to upgrade my stock exhaust on my 01 GSXR 750 for some time. I finally got around to doing it. I picked both midpipe and header off ebay for $200 shipped. They are from a donor 2004 GSXR 1000. Their condition is both about 98% as new.
I also got new gaskets and header bolts from a local dealership. I had read that you needed to wrap the headers to avoid warping the fairings but also heard you could just cut the fairings where they hit the pipes- I wanted the Ti headers to be visible so I opted to go the second option. It took me about 4 hours total, taking my time to pull the radiator, bolting and lining up everything and doing an oil change since I had the fairings off. Then I cut down my Yoshi pipe which took me an additional 2 hours with a very dull hacksaw blade and about 10 Dremel cut-off wheels. I am happy with the outcome. I love the rainbow look of the midpipe I still have to rivet one side of the can but it is pressed in very well and isnt coming out anytime soon. It was my first time at shortening a pipe. It sounds SWEET! Cant wait to bring it back on the track next year..
Here it is before:
And after:
This photo shows what I needed to do to make it fit without cooking the fairings. The green arrows are where I had to cut the fairings and the black arrows show where I had to shim the bolts slightly to aid in providing clearance. I took it for a short ride today to see how it sounded and let it idle for a while to see if it rubbed anywhere- I am good, no issues.
What I have concluded is that you dont need to put any heat wrap or extra heat-blocking tape on the headers or fairings which is commonly preached on GSXR forums. It just takes a steady hand with a dremel and some patience fitting everything. I think the weight savings is about 10 pounds but it looks WAY better then the straight, black pipe to the muffler and the flat black headers were really boring.